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Cortland County trash would improve cash flow at Onondaga County waste-to-energy plant

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Importing trash from Cortland County would help the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency's trash-burning plant reduce its financial losses, OCRRA officials said at a news conference on Aug. 14, 2013 in Syracuse, N.Y. This is a view of the trash incinerator on Rock Cut Road.
(Mike Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com)

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Onondaga County's waste-to-energy facility lost roughly $2.5 million last year, and the proposal to import trash from Cortland County would help shore up the plant's finances at a time when local officials are negotiating the plant's future with operator Covanta Energy Corp.

Electricity prices now are less than half what they were four or five years ago, slashing the facility's revenues from selling power. The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency plant in Jamesville earned just over $6 million from electricity last year, compared with $13.5 million in 2008.

Covanta's contract to operate the plant expires in May 2015, and county officials say restoring the plant to financial health will make it easier for them to negotiate favorable terms with Covanta going forward.

Covanta has the option to assume ownership of the facility in 2015, but OCRRA officials said they are not ruling out the possibility that Covanta could continue to operate the plant under contract. Whoever owns the plant in 2015 will also assume roughly $40 million of debt remaining on the facility.

Onondaga County Executive Joanie Mahoney acknowledged that the trash plant was built in the early 1990s after county officials promised they would never import trash to burn. But Mahoney said OCRRA has been so successful in promoting recycling that the waste-to-energy facility remains chronically under capacity.

By arranging to fill that capacity now with household waste from Cortland County, Onondaga County can avoid the possibility that a future plant owner would seek to add capacity by burning tires, medical waste or other undesirable materials, Mahoney said.
"That capacity, especially if we don't own it anymore, is not going to be up to us,'' she said. "And that talk about tires and medical waste (could return)."

Former county Legislator Vicki Baker, of Jamesville, a long-time opponent of the waste-to-energy facility, said this is just the latest in several efforts over the years to import trash for the plant. Opponents always believed that there would not be enough trash for the plant if the county had effective recycling programs, she said.

Baker said "they all owe us an apology'' for breaking the promise not to import trash. She said she plans to fight the deal with Cortland County. Burning more trash means more pollution for residents downwind of the facility, she said.

Kathleen Carroll, business manager for Covanta, said the company supports the agreement between Onondaga and Cortland counties.

The Cortland County deal would bring in between 23,000 and 28,000 tons of additional garbage to burn for electricity each year, and that could translate into as much as $500,000 a year in extra revenue for the plant.

The deal could also save OCRRA hundreds of thousands of dollars in disposal and transportation costs associated with the waste ash that must be trucked away to landfills. Under the proposed agreement with Cortland County, OCRRA would transport ash 40 miles to the Cortland County landfill rather than 80 miles to the privately owned High Acres landfill in Fairport.

The savings in Thruway tolls alone would approach $50,000 a year, OCRRA officials said. And the trucks would return with full loads of trash rather than empty.

Donnelly cautioned that details of the agreement between Onondaga and Cortland counties have not been negotiated, so officials can only make rough estimates of the financial impact. Officials from both counties said they hope to reach a final agreement by the end of the year.